The Ubayyan strain of Ibn Jiluwi in Bahrain
Some progress in linking primary sources on older Bahraini horses to each other. The below is an Ubayyah mare in Volume 1 of the Amiri Arabian Stud Book of Bahrain (page 63):
Compare with the description of this mare in Judi Forbis’ AHW “Pearls of Graet Price” series, following her 1970 visit to the Amiri Stud in Jezra, where she saw 40 mares and two stallions, including Old Dahman I:
“Chestnut Obeyah mare whose dam was from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, high white stockings, human eye, big broad blaze, including both nostrils and a white patch on her belly.”
The two sources very likely describe the same mare. Compare:
| Bahrain Volume I page 63, Obeyah N.4 | Judi Forbis article in AHW (1971) |
| Obeyah | Obeyah |
| Chestnut | Chestnut |
| dam: Saudia | dam was from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia |
| LF to knee, LH (typo there) to hock, RF to knee, RH to hock | high white stockings |
| blaze extending to muzzle and both nostrils | big broad blaze including both nostrils |
| sire Dahman I | Dahman I head stallion standing at Jezra |
This mare was probably an Ubayyah of Ibn Jiluwi. Volume 1, in its introductory paragraph on horses of the Ubayyan strain, mentions that “the strain was the speciality of the Al-Jiluwi family in Al-Hasa province in Saudi Arabia”. Judi said: “dam was from Dhahran”, which is the largest city in Al-Hasa. Pity this branch seems to have died out, as there is no trace of it in Volumes II and III.